Optimization of online advertising bid requests and dynamic floor pricing

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for optimization of online advertising bid requests and floor pricing. In one embodiment, a method may include receiving a first ad impression request for an ad slot on a publisher website or mobile application from an ad exchange server, extracting first publisher website information from the publisher website, and associating the first publisher website information with the first ad impression request. The method may include comparing the referral website URL to a set of one or more historical ad impression requests, identifying second publisher website information associated with a second ad impression request, the second publisher website information comprising ad slot dimension information, and associating the second publisher website information with the first ad impression request. The method may include generating a bid request associated with the first ad impression request, and sending the bid request to one or more ad servers.

BACKGROUND

Advertisers may develop digital ad campaigns with advertisements thatare to be delivered to target consumers. For example, a target consumermay be a visitor to a particular website or application. When the targetconsumer navigates to the website or application, the website orapplication may have an ad slot at which the advertiser's ad can bepresented to the target consumer. In many instances, more than oneadvertiser may be interested in presenting an ad at the ad slot. Todetermine which ad to present to the user, servers associated with thewebsite or application may auction off the ad slot to an advertiser.However, during or prior to the auction process, much of the metadataassociated with the ad slot that is available for auction may becorrupted or lost. As a result, the advertiser may only see incompleteinformation for the ad slot when placing a bid on the ad slot. Inaddition, certain publisher websites may implement floor pricing for adslots, such that an ad slot will not be sold to an advertiser below acertain price. In some instances, floor pricing may negatively impactsales of digital advertising.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example hybrid dataflow and processflow for optimization of online advertising bid requests and floorpricing in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example process flow in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an example hybrid dataflow and processflow in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an example process flow in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 schematically depicts an example use case of the process flow ofFIG. 4 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates an example process flow in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 schematically depicts an example use case of the process flow ofFIG. 6 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an example system architecture inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingdrawings. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration onlyand merely depict example embodiments of the disclosure. The drawingsare provided to facilitate understanding of the disclosure and shall notbe deemed to limit the breadth, scope, or applicability of thedisclosure. The use of the same reference numerals indicates similar,but not necessarily the same or identical components. However, differentreference numerals may be used to identify similar components as well.Various embodiments may utilize elements or components other than thoseillustrated in the drawings, and some elements and/or components may notbe present in various embodiments. The use of singular terminology todescribe a component or element may, depending on the context, encompassa plural number of such components or elements and vice versa.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

This disclosure relates to, among other things, systems, methods,computer-readable media, techniques, and methodologies for optimizationof online advertising bid requests and floor pricing. Online advertisingis unique, for example with respect to print advertising, due to thetechnological and computer- and internet-centric nature of theimplementation. For example, online advertisements may be presented tospecific individuals as determined in real-time. In another example,online advertisements are potentially unlimited as far as a volume of adslots. Further, online advertisements may not have time constraints,unlike, for example, television advertisements that air at certain timeslots. Moreover, online advertising can be uniquely targeted to theparticular viewer such that no two people viewing the same website, forexample, see the same advertisement. As a result, online advertising mayimplement unique bidding systems that require a technical implementationfor a bidding system capable of running in real-time and contingent uponproviding, in real-time, granular information for a particular ad slot.In addition, by providing more information, thereby increasing thegranularity of the units, a filtering effect occurs, which enables anonline advertising system to run with less memory and/or computingresources.

During an online advertising auction process, advertising slots (alsoreferred to herein as “ad slot(s)”) may be associated with metadata thatprovides additional information regarding the ad slot that is thesubject of the auction, or that is available for presentation of adigital advertisement (also referred to herein as “digital ad(s)”).However, the auction process may involve multiple entities, such as apublisher website server, a third party server, an ad exchange server,an advertiser/buyer server, and/or other entities. In one example, apublisher website server may determine that an ad slot is available forsale, and may send information associated with the ad slot to the thirdparty server as an advertisement impression request representing arequest for an ad to fill the available ad slot. The third party servermay forward the ad impression request to an ad exchange server that mayconduct or facilitate the bidding portion of the auction process. Forexample, the ad exchange server may send bid requests with some or allof the information associated with the ad impression request to one ormore ad servers. The ad servers may receive the bid request and relatedinformation, and may submit bids to the ad exchange server. The adexchange server may determine a winning bidder and facilitatepresentation of the winning advertisement at the available ad slot.However, as the information associated with the available ad slot and/orthe ad impression request is communicated from one entity to another,some or all of the information may be corrupted or otherwise lost. Forexample, formatting differences, data protocols, browser technology, andother factors may impact the ability to retain information associatedwith an available ad slot and/or ad impression request. As a result,rather than determining that an available ad slot is on a business newspage of wsj.com, an advertiser may only be able to determine that theavailable ad slot is at wsj.com.

Advertisers may desire to reach particular segments of consumers ortarget consumers, and advertisers may therefore desire as muchinformation as possible regarding an available ad slot. Using theinformation, advertisers may determine an appropriate bid amount or maybetter target ad impressions. For example, if an advertiser knows that ademographic of a user to which an ad is to be presented matches theadvertiser's target demographic, the advertiser may submit a relativelyhigher bid amount than if the advertiser was unable to determine ademographic of the user. Certain advertisers may only bid on ads thatmeet certain thresholds of information. As a result, such advertisersmay miss out on ad slots that meet the advertiser's requirements, butfor which information was simply missing, lost, or otherwiseunavailable. Therefore, ads with missing, lost, or unavailableinformation may sell for less than their true values or their value withan increased amount of information. In contrast, other advertisers maybid less than the true value they place on their true target becausethey want to buy broadly to ensure that they capture some of their mosttargeted audience.

Certain embodiments of the disclosure may recover and/or generateadditional information for certain available ad slots before bids arerequested. As a result, advertisers may receive the additionalinformation recovered and/or generated by embodiments of the disclosure,and may make appropriate bid amount determinations with information thatmay otherwise not have been available.

By generating information associated with particular available ad slots,embodiments of the disclosure may generate robust bid requests that mayresult in higher bid amounts, optimized auction processes, and may alsoreduce an amount of computing power needed to facilitate the auctionprocess. For example, embodiments of the disclosure may enhance theinformation associated with an ad impression request to determine that auser that may consume the ad is a male. Upon receiving this information,advertisers of women's products may decide not to submit a bid at all orthey may be filtered out, thereby reducing the total number of bidsubmissions in response to a bid request. Due to the lower number oftotal bid submissions, a reduced amount of computing power may be neededto process the bids and determine a winner. In contrast, if the user wasnot identified as male, additional advertisers may still have submittedbids, resulting in an increased amount of bid submissions that wouldhave to be processed before determining a winner.

In addition, certain publisher websites may include floor pricing forsome or all of the available ad slots on websites under the publisher'scontrol. For example, a publisher may determine that an ad slot at aparticular location on a certain website may not be sold for less than$1.00. As a result, an ad slot may remain unsold because a maximum bidwas less than the floor price. However, in some instances, a maximum bidmay be relatively close to the floor price, such as a bid of $0.95 wherethe floor price is $1.00. In such instances, the publisher may desire tosell the ad slot at the maximum bid price rather than leaving the adslot unsold.

Embodiments of the disclosure may determine a predicted winning bidamount for an ad slot, and may adjust the floor price before bids arerequested from advertisers. For example, if a publisher's floor price is$1.00, and embodiments of the disclosure determine a predicted winningbid amount of $2.00, embodiments of the disclosure may raise the floorprice to, in one example, $1.90 after incorporating a safety factor orsafety amount. As a result, if an advertiser bids $2.00, the winning bidin a second price auction, as described herein, may be at least $1.90,depending on whether other bids were received. Further, if the only bidreceived was $2.00, under the initial floor price of $1.00, the finalsale price, or winning bid amount, would have been $1.00, whereas withthe raised floor price of $1.90, the winning bid amount becomes $1.90,allowing the publisher to collect extra proceeds from the sale of the adslot.

Embodiments of the disclosure may further reduce floor prices in certaininstances. For example, if the predicted winning bid amount is lowerthan the initial floor price set by the publisher, embodiments of thedisclosure may determine whether a reserve amount is available.Continuing the example above, by increasing the floor price to $1.90 andselling the ad slot at $1.90 instead of $1.00, a reserve amount of $0.90may become available to embodiments of the disclosure. Reserve amountsmay be a difference between adjusted floor prices and initial floorprices in some embodiments, or a difference between a final sale pricefor an ad slot with an adjusted sale price and an initial floor price inother embodiments. As a result, the publisher may be able to sell adslots that may otherwise remain unsold because of the floor price.

Referring now to FIG. 1, in the context of online advertising, anadvertisement impression may be delivered for presentation (e.g.,rendering) to a user 112 in an ad slot 116 at a user device 110. Theuser 112 may be associated with user attributes, which may be providedby the respective user and/or determined via user interaction. Userattributes may include demographic information, geographic information,electronic and/or physical addresses, and other information.Presentation of the advertisement in an ad slot 116 may be referred toas serving an advertisement impression. As used herein, the terms“advertising slot” or “available advertising slot” may refer generallyto a location, environment, or placeholder in which, or in connectionwith which, an impression of an advertisement may be served. In a morespecific context, these terms may refer to, for example, a particularlocation on a web page at which an impression of an advertisement may bepresented to and potentially consumed by a user. Further, the terms“delivery of an advertisement,” “delivery of an advertisementimpression,” “presentment of an advertisement impression,” “serving anad impression,” or any other similar term may be used interchangeablythroughout this disclosure. Although FIG. 1 includes the illustratedcomponents, other embodiments may include additional or fewercomponents.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example use case 100 in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the disclosure. Advertisers may develop ad campaignswith specific goals. To accomplish the goals of the ad campaign, anadvertiser may desire to present ads to target consumers identified byvarious targeting criteria, such as age or age range, demographics,geographic location, gender, or other criteria. To serve ad impressionsin an online context, ad campaigns or related parties may be subject toa bidding process for an available ad slot, in which the ad impressionof the winning bidder will be served. Before an ad impression is servedto a potential consumer, an entity, such as an ad exchange system, maysend a bid request for an advertisement to display in connection with anavailable advertising slot.

In FIG. 1, one or more website publisher server(s) 120 may be incommunication with the user device 110 via one or more network(s) 130,such as a wireless network. The website publisher server 120 mayfacilitate presentation of content 114 at the user device 110. Thewebsite publisher server 120 may generate digital content 114 forpresentation to the user 112 on a display of the user device 110. Thedigital content 114 may include the available ad slot 116 indicating anad slot in which an ad impression may be served to the user 112. Thewebsite publisher server 120 may be in communication with one or more adexchange server(s) 122 via the one or more network(s) 130. In someembodiments, the website publisher server 120 and the ad exchange server122 may be in communication via a different network. In someembodiments, a request may be received from a publisher or through an adexchange. The website publisher server 120 may determine that the adslot 116 is available and may generate an ad impression request. The adimpression request may include information associated with the ad slot116, such as a page on which the ad impression is to be served, thecontent of that page 114, the referring URL, the category of the contentor page, the publisher, user information for the user 112, the addimensions, and the like.

At block 132, the ad exchange server 122 may receive the ad impressionrequest and the available ad slot information. However, the websitepublisher server 120 may indirectly communicate the ad impressionrequest to the ad exchange server 122 through one or moreintermediaries. As a result, the ad impression request may no longerinclude all of the initial information that may have been included orassociated with the ad impression request (e.g., page on which the adimpression is to be served, the content of that page 114, the referringURL, the category of the content or page, the publisher, userinformation for the user 112, sentiment of the page, etc.). For example,the available ad slot information received by the ad exchange server 122may include only a referring URL, or other information that may be lesscomplete than the information originally provided by the websitepublisher server 120.

At block 134, the ad exchange server 122 may determine additionalavailable ad slot information. For example, the ad exchange server 122may analyze historical data 136, determine real-time data 138, and/ordetermine external data 140 to determine additional information that maybe associated with the available ad slot. The ad exchange server 122 mayanalyze historical data by comparing the historical data to informationassociated with the ad impression request to determine whether previousad impression requests were processed for the website publisher server120, or for another related entity. The ad exchange server 122 maydetermine or identify a previous ad impression request that is relatedto the present ad impression request, and may associate information fromthe previous ad impression request with the present ad impressionrequest. In one example, ad slot dimensions may have been associatedwith a previous ad impression request, and may be missing from thepresent ad impression. The ad exchange server 122 may determine, basedat least in part on historical data, such as a previous ad impressionrequest from the same referring URL, the ad slot dimensions. The adexchange server 122 may associate the identified or determined ad slotdimensions with the present ad impression request, thereby creating morerobust information associated with the present ad impression request.Other information that may be determined may including user-specificinformation (e.g., demographic, purchase history, search history, etc.),context information (e.g., time of day, seasonality, website content,keywords, etc.).

In another example, the ad exchange server 122 may optionally determinethat a publisher identifier is missing from the present ad impressionrequest. The ad exchange server 122 may determine real-time data 138 todetermine the publisher identifier. In one embodiment, the ad exchangeserver 122 may request the publisher identifier from a JavaScript engineor other software operating locally at the user device 110, such as at abrowser on the user device 110. The JavaScript engine may send therequested information, such as the publisher identifier, to the adexchange server 122. The ad exchange server 122 may associate thereceived information with the ad impression request.

In another example, the ad exchange server 122 may optionally determinethat a website category is missing from the present ad impressionrequest. The ad exchange server 122 may determine external data 140 todetermine the website category. In one embodiment, the ad exchangeserver 122 may request information from an external source or thirdparty source, such as a mobile application store, online marketplace,third party database, or the like, to determine or request informationsuch as star rating, user feedback or ratings, website categories, andother information. The ad exchange server 122 may receive theinformation and may associate the received information with the adimpression request.

At block 142, based at least in part on the ad impression request, andin some instances the additional data determined by the ad exchangeserver 122, the ad exchange server 122 may determine a predicted winningbid amount. For example, the ad exchange server 122 may analyze the adimpression request, the determined additional data, previous orhistorical auctions for similar or related ad slots, bidding trends frompotential bidders, and the like to determine a predicted winning bidamount. In one example, the ad exchange server 122 may determine a setof one or more advertisers to which bid requests may be sent. The set ofone or more advertisers may be based at least in part on a webpagecategory or other attribute of the available ad slot. Upon determiningpotential advertisers, the ad exchange server 122 may determine biddinghistories or trends for bids submitted by respective advertisers, andmay determine or calculate a predicted winning bid amount based at leastin part on the historical behavior of the potential advertisers. In someembodiments, the ad exchange server 122 may determine average winningbid amounts across aggregate ad slots for a particular publisher orwebsite in order to determine a predicted winning bid amount.

Advertisement metrics may also be considered in determining a predictedwinning bid amount. Advertising metrics may include data relating to anumber of ad impressions previously served, a time period over which thead impressions were served, an associated click-through rate, a numberof clicks generated, a number of page views of web sites of advertisersgenerated based on ad impressions, a number of searches conducted as aresult of ad impressions, a number of purchases made of advertisedproducts or services, a purchase rate, a consideration rate, and soforth.

At determination block 144, one or more modules of the ad exchangeserver 122 may be executed to determine whether the predicted winningbid amount is greater than a floor price associated with the adimpression request. For example, the ad exchange server 122 may identifyor determine a floor price associated with the ad impression request. Insome embodiments, the floor price for the ad slot may be received fromthe website publisher server 120, while in other embodiments, the floorprice may be locally available or otherwise accessible to the adexchange server 122. The ad exchange server 122 may compare thepredicted winning bid amount to the floor price to determine whether thepredicted winning bid amount is greater than the floor price.

If it is determined at block 144 that the predicted winning bid amountis greater than the floor price, the ad exchange server 122 may proceedto block 146, at which the floor price may be increased. In someembodiments, the floor price may be increased to an amount between theinitial floor price and the predicted winning bid amount, while in otherembodiments, the floor price may be increased to match the predictedwinning bid amount. For example, the ad exchange server 122 may providea safety cushion or safety factor that may be a fixed amount or apercentage of the difference between the predicted winning bid amountand the floor price so as to prevent losing a potential sale of the adslot if the predicted winning bid is not accurate.

If it is determined at block 144 that the predicted winning bid amountis not greater than the floor price, the ad exchange server 122 mayproceed to determination block 148. At determination block 148, one ormore modules of the ad exchange server 122 may be executed to determinewhether a reserve amount is available or whether the publisher has optedinto sub-floor pricing. The reserve amount may be based at least in parton previous or historical auctions facilitated by the ad exchange server122 for the website publisher server 120.

If it is determined at block 148 that there is no available reserve, thead exchange server 122 may proceed to block 150, at which the initialfloor price is maintained, or is not adjusted.

If it is determined at block 148 that there is an available reserve, thead exchange server 122 may proceed to determination block 152. Atdetermination block 152, one or more modules of the ad exchange server122 may be executed to determine whether the reserve covers a differencebetween the predicted winning bid amount and the floor price. Forexample, if the predicted winning bid amount is $0.90, and the floorprice is $1.00, the difference between the predicted winning bid amountand the floor price is $0.10. If the reserve amount is $0.50, the adexchange server 122 may determine that the reserve amount covers (e.g.,is equal to or greater than) the difference between the predictedwinning bid amount and the floor price.

If it is determined at block 152 that the reserve does not cover thedifference between the predicted winning bid amount and the floor price,the ad exchange server 122 may proceed to block 150, at which theinitial floor price is maintained, or is not adjusted.

If it is determined at block 152 that the reserve price does cover thedifference between the predicted winning bid amount and the floor price,the ad exchange server 122 may proceed to block 154, at which the floorprice is reduced. In some embodiments the floor price may be reduced toequal the predicted winning bid amount, while in other embodiments, thefloor price may be reduced to an amount in between the predicted winningbid amount and the floor price to provide a safety cushion.

Upon adjusting the floor price, if needed, the ad exchange server 122may proceed to block 156, at which a bid request is generated with theadditional ad slot information. The bid request may include the adimpression request information, as well as additional informationdetermined by the ad exchange server 122, such as a user identifier oruser information related to the user to which the ad impression will beserved, website content or context, location information, time of day orchronological information, and other related information. In someembodiments, additional ad slot information may be associated with thebid request prior to determining an estimated bid price or predictedwinning bid amount.

At block 158, the ad exchange server 122 may send the bid request tovarious entities for an advertisement to be displayed or otherwisepresented or served in connection with the available ad slot 116.Various entities, such as ad servers or ad delivery servers, may becapable of communicating with the ad exchange server 122 to submit bidsin response to the bid request for the opportunity to present an adimpression in connection with the available ad slot 116.

At block 160, the bidding entities or ad servers may receive the bidrequest from the ad exchange server 122. The bidding process may occurin real-time as bid requests for the available ad slot 116 are received.In one or more representative scenarios, the entire time fromtransmission of the bid request from the ad exchange server 122 to abidding entity and receipt of a bid amount from the bidding entity bythe ad exchange server 122 may span approximately 100 milliseconds. Thebidding entities may include the advertisers themselves or third partiesbidding on behalf of advertisers. In response to the bid request, bidsmay be submitted to the ad exchange server 122 by the various entities.

At block 162, the ad exchange server 122 may determine a winning bid.The bidder that submits the highest bid amount for the ad slot 116 maywin the right to deliver an ad impression for the ad slot 116. The adexchange server 122 may determine a winning bid by ranking the receivedbid amounts and determining a highest bidder. The ad exchange server 122may optionally compare the advertiser that submitted the bid against ablacklist to determine whether the advertiser is prevented fromadvertising at the ad slot 116. For example, the publisher may desire toprevent competitors from presenting ads on the publisher's webpage. Thead exchange server 122 may optionally compare the advertiser thatsubmitted the bid to a whitelist or approved list to determine whetherthe advertiser is approved or preapproved to present an ad at the adslot 116. The ad exchange server 122 may compare the winning bid amountto the floor price to determine whether the floor price has been met.

If the floor price has been met by the winning bid, the ad exchangeserver 122 may facilitate presentation of the ad impression associatedwith the winning bid at block 164. The advertisement associated with thewinning bid may be sent from the ad exchange server 122 to the websitepublisher server 120 for presentation at the available ad slot 116. Asshown in FIG. 1, a winning ad 166 may be served to the user 112 as partof the digital content 114.

Dynamically enhancing ad impression information to generate relativelymore complete bid requests may result in increased bids or more targetedand more valuable ads, and may affect bidding activity for digitaladvertisement slots. Adjusting floor prices for specific ad slotauctions may also result in a reduced number of unsold ad slots andenhanced revenue realization. Embodiments of the disclosure maytherefore generate optimized auctions for digital ads and may reduce anamount of computing power needed to facilitate digital ad auctions.

One or more illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have beendescribed above. The above-described embodiments are merely illustrativeof the scope of this disclosure and are not intended to be limiting inany way. Accordingly, variations, modifications, and equivalents ofembodiments disclosed herein are also within the scope of thisdisclosure. The above-described embodiments and additional and/oralternative embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detailhereinafter through reference to the accompanying drawings.

Illustrative Processes and Use Cases

Referring to FIGS. 2-3, FIG. 2 illustrates an example process flow 200for optimizing online advertising bid requests in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the disclosure and will be discussed in conjunctionwith the hybrid dataflow and process flow depicted in FIG. 3. Althoughcertain operations are illustrated as occurring separately in FIGS. 2and 3 for clarity, some or all of the operations may occur concurrentlyor partially concurrently. Other embodiments may include additional orfewer, or different, components than those illustrated in FIG. 3.

Referring first to FIG. 2, at block 202 of the process flow 200, an adexchange server may receive a first ad impression request for an ad sloton a publisher website. The first ad impression request may include adslot information, such as a referral website URL associated with thepublisher website. In some embodiments, the first ad impression requestmay include additional information, such as a publisher identifier,website context information, user information, user device information,and/or mobile application information.

Referring to FIG. 3, an example use case implementing the process flow200 is partially illustrated. In the example of FIG. 3, one or morewebsite publisher server(s) 300 may send an ad impression request 302 toone or more ad exchange server(s) 304. The website publisher server 300may be in communication with a user device and may serve digital contentfor presentation on a display of the user device. The website publisherserver 300 may receive a request for content from the user device andmay determine that an ad slot is available for presentation of an adimpression to the user viewing digital content on the user device. Thead exchange server 304 may receive the ad impression request from thewebsite publisher server 300. An ad impression request 306, as shown inFIG. 3, may include ad slot information associated with an available adslot. For example, the ad impression request 306 may include a domain, apage URL, a referring URL, a category, a publisher, and otherinformation. However, some or all of the information may be missing fromthe ad impression request 306.

In some embodiments, upon receiving the ad impression request 306, thead exchange server 304 may optionally determine that the first adimpression request is missing certain information, such as a useridentifier or ad slot dimension information.

At block 204 of the process flow 200 in FIG. 2, computer-executableinstructions of one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an adexchange server may be optionally executed to extract first publisherwebsite information from the publisher website, the first publisherwebsite information comprising a user identifier.

In FIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304 may request real-time browserinformation 308 to supplement the ad slot information associated withthe ad impression request 306. For example, the ad exchange server 304may communicate with a user device 310 to identify attributes associatedwith the user, the user device, or the available ad slot. In oneexample, the user device 310 may send a request to a browser operatingon the user device 310, which may be to a JavaScript engine, to extractcertain information from the browser and/or user device 310. Theextracted information may then be sent to the ad exchange server 304.The JavaScript engine may be configured to determine or identifyreal-time information and to send the determined information to the adexchange server 304. For example, the ad exchange server 304 may requestinformation related to the presented webpage content 320, the availablead slot 322, such as ad slot dimension information, publisheridentifiers, user identifiers, or other information. The JavaScriptengine may determine the requested information and send the requestedinformation to the ad exchange server 304.

At block 206 of the process flow 200, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe optionally executed to associate the first publisher websiteinformation with the first ad impression request. In FIG. 3, the adexchange server 304 may associate the extracted information with the adimpression request 306.

At block 208 of the process flow 200, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe optionally executed to compare the referral website URL to a set ofone or more historical ad impression requests.

In FIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304 may determine historical data 330to supplement the ad slot information associated with the ad impressionrequest 306. For example, the ad exchange server 304 may optionallyextract the “refURL” or referring URL information from the ad impressionrequest 306, and may compare the extracted information to cached orstored historical data to determine whether there is a match. Whilereferring URLs are discussed in this example, the ad exchange server 304may extract any available information to determine whether historicaldata is available. In some embodiments, the cached or stored historicaldata may be locally stored, while in other embodiments, the historicaldata may be stored remotely. In such instances, the ad exchange server304 may extract certain available information from the ad impressionrequest 306 to generate extracted information, and may send theextracted information to a remote server database, such as theillustrated historical ad impression database(s) 332 for analysis. Thead exchange server 304 may receive a set of one or more historical adimpression requests that match some or all of the extracted information.In other embodiments, the ad exchange server 304 may determine a set ofone or more historical ad impression requests that match some or all ofthe attributes associated with the ad impression request 306. Historicalad impression requests may include extracted data such as, but notlimited to, ad slot dimensions, page sentiment identifiers or pagesentiment categories, a publisher identifier, a page or subpageidentifier, and the like.

At block 210 of the process flow 200 in FIG. 2, computer-executableinstructions of one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an adexchange server may be optionally executed to determine a second adimpression request (which may be in the form of a data lookup) from theset of one or more historical ad impression requests that comprises thereferral website URL. For example, in FIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304may determine or identify a previous or historical ad impression requestfrom the historical ad impression datastore(s) 332 that matches orsubstantially matches the ad impression request 306. For example, thehistorical ad impression may have been from the same referring URL, orfrom the same publisher, or for the same user, etc.

At block 212 of the process flow 200, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe optionally executed to identify second publisher website informationassociated with the second ad impression request, the second publisherwebsite information comprising ad slot dimension information. In FIG. 3,the ad exchange server 304 may determine that the historical adimpression was associated with ad slot dimensions, and may determinethat it is unlikely the ad slot dimensions changed over time.

At block 214 of the process flow 200 in FIG. 2, computer-executableinstructions of one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an adexchange server may be optionally executed to associate the secondpublisher website information with the first ad impression request. InFIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304 may associate the ad slot dimensionsof the historical ad impression request with the present ad impressionrequest 306.

At block 216 of the process flow 200 in FIG. 2, computer-executableinstructions of one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an adexchange server may be optionally executed to send an informationrequest comprising the referral website URL to a third party server, theinformation request indicative of a request for a publisher identifierassociated with the referral website URL.

In FIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304 may request external information340 to supplement the ad slot information associated with the adimpression request 306. For example, the ad server 304 may send arequest to one or more third party server(s) 350 requesting certaininformation, such as publisher information, user ratings, star ratings,sentimental content ratings, website category information, operatingsystem information, mobile app information (e.g., version, features,name, etc.), app store information, and other information. Whileillustrated in FIG. 3 as occurring upon request by the ad exchangeserver 304, external information may be periodically or continuouslyupdated by the third party server 350, and may be provided or sent tothe ad exchange server 304 upon demand.

At block 218 of the process flow 200, an ad exchange server mayoptionally receive the publisher identifier, and at block 220,computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s) stored on amemory of an ad exchange server may be optionally executed to associatethe publisher identifier with the first ad impression request. In FIG.3, the ad exchange server 304 may receive information from the thirdparty server 350 and may associate the information with the adimpression request 306.

At block 222, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to generatea bid request associated with the first ad impression request, the bidrequest comprising the referral website URL, the user identifier, andthe ad slot dimension information.

In FIG. 3, the ad exchange server 304 may enhance the original adimpression request with the additional information 360. As a result, thead exchange server 304 may generate an ad impression request 370, whichmay be the same or different than a bid request, that includes theadditional information. For example, the ad impression request 370 mayinclude additional ad slot information such as a domain 372, a page URL374, a webpage category 376, a publisher identifier 378, a useridentifier 380, and/or user activity information 382, such as searchhistory information, purchase history information, intent information,or the like. Any of the additional information 372, 374, 376, 378, 380,382 that was previously missing from the original ad impression request306 may have been determined or identified by the ad exchange server 304from the real-time browser information 308, the historical data 330,and/or the external information requests 340.

At block 224, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to send thebid request to one or more ad servers. In FIG. 3, the ad exchange server304 may send a bid request with the ad impression request 370 or the adslot information to one or more ad servers to solicit bids for theavailable ad slot. The ad exchange server 304 may receive a bid from anad server in response to the bid request. The bid may include a bidamount for the ad slot. The ad exchange server 304 may determine thatthe bid is a winning bid, and may send a winning notification to the adserver. The ad exchange server 304 may receive ad impression informationincluding a digital advertisement, and may facilitate or send the adimpression information for presentation of the digital advertisement inthe ad slot at the publisher website. The ad exchange server 304 maystore the first ad impression request in the set of one or morehistorical ad impression requests for later reference in determiningmissing ad slot information.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, FIG. 4 illustrates an example processflow 400 for optimizing online advertising bid requests in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure and will be discussed inconjunction with the hybrid dataflow and process flow depicted in FIG.5. Although certain operations are illustrated as occurring separatelyin FIGS. 4 and 5 for clarity, some or all of the operations may occurconcurrently or partially concurrently. Other embodiments may includeadditional or fewer, or different, components than those illustrated inFIG. 5.

Referring first to FIG. 4, at block 402 of the process flow 400, an adexchange server may receive a first ad impression request with first adslot information for an available ad slot on a publisher website. Thefirst ad impression request may include ad slot information such supplycontext data, demand context data, floor price data, and other data.

Referring to FIG. 5, an example use case implementing the process flow400 is illustrated. In the example of FIG. 5, one or more websitepublisher server(s) 500 may send an ad impression request 512 to one ormore ad exchange server(s) 510. The website publisher server 500 and/orthe ad exchange server 510 may be the same or different than therespective website publisher server and ad exchange server of FIGS. 1and 3. The website publisher server 500 may be in communication with auser device and may serve digital content for presentation on a displayof the user device. The website publisher server 500 may receive arequest for content from the user device and may determine that an adslot is available for presentation of an ad impression to the userviewing digital content on the user device. The website publisher server500 may send an ad impression request 514 to the ad exchange server 510.The ad impression request 514 may include or be associated with supplycontext information 516, such as geolocation data, URL data, page data,content data, time of day data, IP address, and the like, demand contentinformation 518, such as price history, recent actions, seasonality, andthe like, and/or floor price data 520, which may indicate a floor pricefor the available ad slot. The floor price may be a minimum price or bidamount that will be accepted for the ad slot, such that a maximum bidunder the floor price will result in no ad impression being served. Inthe example of FIG. 5, the floor price data 520 may indicate that aninitial publisher floor price 522, which may be $1.00. The initial floorprice may be set by the publisher and may be communicated as part of thead impression request, or may be a contractually agreed upon price thatmay otherwise be accessible to or known by the ad exchange server 510.In some embodiments, the ad impression request 514 may optionallyinclude user profile information, such as demographic information, userinterests/segmentation information, user intent information, and thelike.

At block 404 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to calculate a first predicted winning bid amount based atleast in part on the first ad slot information. For example, the firstpredicted winning bid amount may be determined based at least in part onthe supply context information, which may include website contextinformation, geolocation information, etc., the demand contextinformation, user profile information, and the like. In someembodiments, the ad exchange server may determine a time of day at arespective geographic location to facilitate calculating a predictedwinning bid amount. For example, a time of day of 4:00 am may result inless demand for the available ad slot than a time of day of 7:00 pm. Asa result, the ad exchange server may determine a relative time of databased at least in part on geolocation information. The ad exchangeserver may consider a user activity history, such as a search historyand/or a purchase history, as well as user demographic information incalculating a predicted winning bid amount. For example, a relativelymore popular target demographic, such as 18-35 year olds, may berelatively more valuable, in some instances, than a 75+ year olddemographic. Likewise, user intent information, which may be determinedbased at least in part on a search history or a purchase history, may beused to determine a predicted winning bid amount because of theincreased interest particular advertisers may have in that user. Todetermine a predicted winning bid amount, the ad exchange server mayfurther consider a relative quality of the ad slot, information relatingto metrics or historical data associated with advertisements that havepreviously been served at the ad slot (e.g., click-through rate, numberof clicks, number of impressions, number of page views, number ofassociated searches, etc.), historical bids for the ad slot over apredetermined historical period, and other considerations.

At block 406 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to determine that the first predicted winning bid is greaterthan a floor price associated with the first ad impression request.

In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510 may receive the ad impressionrequest from the website publisher server 500. The ad exchange server510 may identify or determine the initial publisher floor price 522 andmay determine a predicted winning bid amount of $2.00 based at least inpart on the ad impression request information, as well as additionalinformation determined by the ad exchange server 510. The ad exchangeserver 510 may compare the calculated predicted winning bid amount of$2.00 to the initial publisher floor price of $1.00 to determine thatthe predicted winning bid amount is greater than the initial publisherfloor price.

At block 408 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to reduce the first predicted winning bid amount by a firstamount to generate a second predicted winning bid amount.

In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510 may determine that although thepredicted winning bid amount is $2.00, the ad exchange server 510 mayreduce the predicted winning bid amount by a fixed value, by apercentage, by a percentage of a difference between the predictedwinning bid amount and the initial floor price, or by any other suitablevalue, to provide a cushion or safety factor in the event that thepredicted winning bid amount was too high. As a result, it may be lesslikely that the ad slot is unsold because the predicted winning bidamount was too high.

At block 410 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to increase the floor price from an initial value to matchthe second predicted winning bid amount.

In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510 may adjust the floor price priorto requesting bids at block 524. For example, the ad exchange server 510may increase the floor price from the initial value of $1.00 to themodified (adjusted for safety) predicted winning bid amount of $1.90. Insome embodiments, the floor price may be increased to match thepredicted winning bid amount.

At block 412 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to generate a first bid request comprising the first ad slotinformation and the floor price. In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510may generate a bid request with the ad impression request informationand the adjusted floor price of $1.90.

At block 414 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe optionally executed to determine, based at least in part on the firstad slot information, a set of one or more advertising campaigns that areeligible to bid on the available ad slot. In FIG. 5, for example, the adexchange server 510 may determine advertisers that are eligible to bidon the available ad slot. In some instances, the ad exchange server 510may determine whether any potential advertisers are blacklisted frombidding on the ad slot, such as competitors of the publisher, or otherblacklisted entities, before sending bid requests, thereby reducing theamount of bid requests that may be received by the ad exchange server510.

At block 416 of the process flow 400, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to send the first bid request to one or more ad servers,such as the ad servers associated with respective advertising campaignsof the set of one or more advertising campaigns in instances where block414? is performed.

In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510 may send the bid request with theadjusted floor price to one or more ad servers. The ad servers mayreceive the bid request and may submit a bid to the ad exchange server510. The ad exchange server 510 may receive a number of bids 530. Afirst bid may be for $0.10, a second bid may be for $0.50, a third bidmay be for $0.97, and a fourth bid may be for $2.50 in the illustratedexample.

Upon receiving the bids 530, the ad exchange server 510 may determine ahigh bidder, and may determine whether the high bidder satisfied thefloor price requirement. In FIG. 5, the ad exchange server 510 maydetermine that the fourth bid of $2.50 is the high bidder, and maydetermine that the bid amount of $2.50 satisfies an increased floorprice 534 of $1.90.

The ad exchange server 510 may perform a second price auction todetermine a final sale price for the ad slot based at least in part onthe received bids and the floor price. In the illustrated example,because the floor price was modified from an initial floor price 536 of$1.00 to the increased floor price 534 of $1.90, the second priceauction result 540 may be $1.90, which may be equal to the floor price.In some embodiments, the final price may be one increment higher thanthe floor price, such as $1.91. In contrast, with the initial floorprice 536 of $1.00, the same high bid of $2.50 would have resulted in asecond price auction result 542 of $1.00. The winning bidder maytherefore have paid only $1.00 for the ad slot with the initial floorprice, but as a result of the increased floor price, the winning biddermust pay $1.90 for the ad slot.

Upon facilitating the auction process, the ad exchange server 510 maydetermine a difference between the winning price of $1.90 and theinitial floor price of $1.00 at block 550. The difference in thisexample is $0.90. The ad exchange server 510 may store the differencevalue of $0.90 to a reserve amount at block 560, indicating an increasein sale price due to a floor price adjustment by the ad exchange server510.

Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7, FIG. 6 illustrates an example processflow 600 for optimizing online advertising bid requests in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure and will be discussed inconjunction with the hybrid dataflow and process flow depicted in FIG.7. Although certain operations are illustrated as occurring separatelyin FIGS. 6 and 7 for clarity, some or all of the operations may occurconcurrently or partially concurrently. Other embodiments may includeadditional or fewer, or different, operations or components than thoseillustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7.

Referring first to FIG. 6, at block 602 of the process flow 600, an adexchange server may receive an ad impression request with available adslot information. The available ad slot information may includeinformation such as a publisher identifier, a referring URL address, auser profile identifier, ad dimensions, and the like.

At block 604 of the process flow 600, computer-executable instructionsof one or more module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server maybe executed to calculate a predicted winning bid amount based at leastin part on the available ad slot information. In some instances, the adexchange server may determine additional information, for example viahistorical data, real-time information requests, and/or third partyexternal source information requests to enhance the available ad slotinformation, and may use the additional information in calculating apredicted winning bid amount.

At block 606, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to comparethe predicted winning bid amount to a floor price associated with the adimpression request.

At determination block 608, a determination may be made, for example bythe ad exchange server, as to whether the predicted winning bid amountis greater than the floor price. If it is determined that the predictedwinning bid amount is greater than the floor price, the process flow 600may proceed to block 610, at which the floor price associated with thead impression request is increased. For example, the floor price may beincreased to the predicted winning bid amount, or to a value in betweenthe initial floor price and the predicted winning bid amount.

If it is determined that the predicted winning bid amount is not greaterthan the floor price at determination block 608, the process flow 600may proceed to determination block 612, at which a determination is madeas to whether there is sufficient reserve, which may be a determinationas to whether there is sufficient reserve to cover a difference betweenthe predicted winning bid amount and the initial floor price. If it isdetermined that there is sufficient reserve, the process flow 600 mayproceed to block 614, at which the initial floor price may be decreased.In some instances the floor price may be decreased to the predictedwinning bid amount, while in other instances the floor price may bedecreased to an amount between the predicted winning bid amount and theinitial floor price. If it is determined that there is not sufficientreserve at determination block 612, the process flow 600 may proceed toblock 616, at which the initial floor price associated with the adimpression request is maintained. In some embodiments, the ad exchangeserver may determine an average floor price for ad impressionsassociated with the publisher or source of the ad impression request,and may determine whether the average floor price is equal to or greaterthan the initial floor price. If the average floor price is greater thanthe initial floor price, the ad exchange server may reduce the floorprice for the available ad slot.

At block 618, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to generatea bid request with the appropriate floor price.

At block 620, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to send thebid request to one or more ad servers. At block 622, one or more bidsmay be received, for example by an ad exchange server.

At block 624, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be optionally executedto filter blacklisted bids or bids from blacklisted bidders. Forexample, bids from competitors or unsavory advertisers may be filteredout via comparison to blacklisted entities and/or approved bidders oradvertisers.

At block 626, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be optionally executedto conduct a second price auction. The second price auction may be usedto determine a final sale price for the ad slot and may be based atleast in part on a highest bidding amount. In some auction processes foronline advertising, a second-price auction may occur after an adexchange system receives bids in response to a bid request. Second-priceauctions may determine a winning bidder's actual payment amount to be anincremental amount or value above the second highest bidders bid. Forexample, if the highest bid was $2.00, and the second highest bid was$1.00, a second-price auction may be used to determine an actual pricefor the highest bidder to $1.01, although the highest bidder was willingto pay $2.00 for the ad slot.

At block 628, computer-executable instructions of one or more module(s)stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may be executed to determinea winning bidder. For example, the winning bidder may be the winner ofthe second price auction and/or the highest bidder. In some instances,determining a winning bidder may include determining whether the winningbid amount meets or exceeds the floor price associated with the bidrequest.

At block 630, the ad exchange server may facilitate presentation of anad impression at the ad slot, for example, with an ad designated by thewinning bidder. At block 632, computer-executable instructions of one ormore module(s) stored on a memory of an ad exchange server may beoptionally executed to determine a difference between the final saleprice or the adjusted floor price and the initial floor price. At block634, the ad exchange server may add the difference to a reserve amount.In some embodiments, the ad exchange server may identify a reserveamount associated with a publisher account of the publisher website. Thereserve amount may be indicative of a positive difference between afirst previous winning bid for a previously sold ad impression and aprevious floor price associated with the previously sold ad impression.

Referring to FIG. 7, an example use case 700 implementing the processflow 600 is illustrated. In the example of FIG. 7, ad impressionsassociated with an initial floor price of $1.00 are illustrated overtime. A first ad impression 710 may be first in time and may have theinitial floor price of $1.00. An ad exchange server in accordance withone or more embodiments of the disclosure may determine that the floorprice should be increased to $1.10, which may result in a sale of the adslot for $1.10. The ad exchange server may calculate a differencebetween the increased floor price and initial floor price to be $0.10,and may add $0.10 to a reserve amount for the publisher server orwebsite server.

A second ad impression 720 may also have the initial floor price of$1.00. The ad exchange server may determine that the floor price shouldbe increased to $1.05, which may result in a sale of the ad slot for$1.05. The ad exchange server may calculate a difference between theincreased floor price and initial floor price to be $0.05, and may add$0.05 to the reserve amount for the publisher server or website serverfor a total of $0.15.

A third ad impression 730 may also have the initial floor price of$1.00. The ad exchange server may determine that the floor price shouldbe increased to $1.09, which may result in a sale of the ad slot for$1.09. The ad exchange server may calculate a difference between theincreased floor price and initial floor price to be $0.09, and may add$0.09 to the reserve amount for the publisher server or website serverfor a total of $0.24.

A fourth ad impression 740 may also have the initial floor price of$1.00. The ad exchange server may determine that the floor price shouldbe decreased to $0.90, which may be a difference of $0.10. The adexchange server may determine that the difference of $0.10 is less thanor equal to the reserve amount of $0.24. As a result, the ad exchangeserver may reduce the floor price to $0.90, which may increase alikelihood of sale of the ad slot. If the ad slot sells, for example at$0.90, the ad exchange server may calculate a difference between theinitial floor price and the decreased floor price to be $0.10, and maydeduct $0.10 from the reserve amount for the publisher server or websiteserver for a remaining total of $0.14.

A fifth ad impression 750 may also have the initial floor price of$1.00. The ad exchange server may determine that the floor price shouldbe decreased to $0.93, which may be a difference of $0.07. The adexchange server may determine that the difference of $0.07 is less thanor equal to the reserve amount of $0.14. As a result, the ad exchangeserver may reduce the floor price to $0.93, which may increase alikelihood of sale of the ad slot. If the ad slot sells, for example at$0.93, the ad exchange server may calculate a difference between theinitial floor price and the decreased floor price to be $0.07, and maydeduct $0.07 from the reserve amount for the publisher server or websiteserver for a remaining total of $0.07. If the reserve amount wasinsufficient to cover the difference between the predicted sale priceand the initial floor price, the ad exchange server may maintain theinitial floor price, so as to not drop below an average floor price of$1.00 for the publisher or website. As a result of adjusting the floorprice, the publisher sells all ad impressions 1-5, and in this scenarioreceives total revenue of $5.07. Whereas, with a static $1 floor price,the publisher might have only received $3.00 of revenue and had twounsold slots.

One or more operations of the method, process flows, or use cases ofFIGS. 1-7 may have been described above as being performed by a computerdevice or server, or more specifically, by one or more program modules,applications, or the like executing on a device. It should beappreciated, however, that any of the operations of methods, processflows, or use cases of FIGS. 1-7 may be performed, at least in part, ina distributed manner by one or more other devices, or more specifically,by one or more program modules, applications, or the like executing onsuch devices. In addition, it should be appreciated that processingperformed in response to execution of computer-executable instructionsprovided as part of an application, program module, or the like may beinterchangeably described herein as being performed by the applicationor the program module itself or by a device on which the application,program module, or the like is executing. While the operations of themethods, process flows, or use cases of FIGS. 1-7 may be described inthe context of the illustrative devices, it should be appreciated thatsuch operations may be implemented in connection with numerous otherdevice configurations.

The operations described and depicted in the illustrative methods,process flows, and use cases of FIGS. 1-7 may be carried out orperformed in any suitable order as desired in various exampleembodiments of the disclosure, and in some instances may be performed asan ordered combination, such as the ordered combinations illustrated inthe drawings. Additionally, in certain example embodiments, at least aportion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore,in certain example embodiments, less, more, or different operations thanthose depicted in FIGS. 1-7 may be performed.

Although specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described, oneof ordinary skill in the art will recognize that numerous othermodifications and alternative embodiments are within the scope of thedisclosure. For example, any of the functionality and/or processingcapabilities described with respect to a particular device or componentmay be performed by any other device or component. Further, whilevarious illustrative implementations and architectures have beendescribed in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, one ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that numerous othermodifications to the illustrative implementations and architecturesdescribed herein are also within the scope of this disclosure.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference toblock and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/orcomputer program products according to example embodiments. It will beunderstood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flowdiagrams, respectively, may be implemented by execution ofcomputer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of theblock diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to beperformed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to beperformed at all, according to some embodiments. Further, additionalcomponents and/or operations beyond those depicted in blocks of theblock and/or flow diagrams may be present in certain embodiments.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specifiedfunctions, and program instruction means for performing the specifiedfunctions. It will also be understood that each block of the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose,hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions,elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

Illustrative Computer Architecture

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example computer network architecture 800 isdepicted. FIG. 8 includes an example website publisher server 810, anexample ad exchange server 820, an example ad server(s) 830, and anexample user device 840 with a user 842. Each component may be connectedvia one or more network(s) 844.

The network(s) 844 may include, but are not limited to, any one or moredifferent types of suitable communications networks, such as cablenetworks, the Internet, wireless networks, cellular networks, or otherprivate and/or public networks. Further, the network(s) 844 may includeany type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including,but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber,hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC), microwave terrestrial transceivers, a radiofrequency communication medium, a satellite communication medium, or anycombination thereof.

As illustrated, the user device 840 may include one or more processor(s)846 and one or more memory devices 848 with a user application 850stored thereon. The user device 840 may also include various additionalcomponents, such as one or more input device(s), I/O interface(s),radio/antennas, network interface(s), and other components. The userdevice 840 may also include an operating system configured to provide aninterface between software and hardware resources of the user device840, and/or database management systems configured to supportfunctionality of the memory 848. The user device 840 may include systembusses that functionally couple various components of the user device840. In other embodiments, the user device 840 may include additional orfewer components.

The memory 848 may include one or more program modules, applications, orthe like, such as the user application 850. One or more userapplications 850 may be loaded into the memory 848. The userapplications 850 may be any application(s) capable of facilitating thedisplay of or otherwise presenting advertisement impressions to the user842. The user applications 850 may include, but are not limited to, aweb-based browser application, a dedicated software application (e.g., asmart phone application, a tablet application, etc.), a mobile browserapplication, and so forth. The user application 850 may be configured torender web pages on a respective user device. The web pages may includean advertisement presented in the available advertising slot 854 andother content 852 viewable by the user 842. Any data may be loaded intothe memory 848 for use by the processor(s) 846 in executingcomputer-executable code. The user device 840 may be configured toaccess, store, and/or retrieve data in or from one or more datastore(s).The user device 840 may also include communications connection(s) thatallow the user device 840 to communicate with datastores, othercomputing devices or servers, user terminals, and/or other devices viathe network(s) 844.

The user device 840 may be any suitable user device including, but notlimited to, a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet, e-reader, orthe like; a desktop computer; a laptop computer, a game console, apersonal media player, a wearable computer device (e.g., eyewear,wristwatches, embedded devices, etc.), and so forth. The user device 840may be configured to present or serve ad impressions to users 842. Theuser device 840 may be configured to operate in various operationalmodes and may be configured to present electronic content and adimpressions.

The ad exchange server(s) 820 may include one or more processor(s) 856,one or more network interface(s) 858, one or more input/output (“I/O”)interface(s) 860, one or more radio/antenna(s) 862, and one or morememory devices 864. The ad exchange server(s) 820 may also includevarious additional components, such as one or more input device(s),configured to interact with the I/O interface 860, that may facilitateoperation of the ad exchange server(s) 820. The ad exchange server(s)820 may also include an operating system configured to provide aninterface between software and hardware resources of the ad exchangeserver(s) 820, and/or database management systems configured to supportfunctionality of the memory 864. The ad exchange server(s) 820 mayinclude system busses that functionally couple various components of thead exchange server(s) 820. In other embodiments, the ad exchangeserver(s) 820 may include additional or fewer components.

The memory 864 may include one or more program modules, applications, orthe like, such as one or more ad impression module(s) 866, one or morebid request generation module(s) 868, one or more floor pricedetermination module(s) 870, one or more reserve tracking module(s) 872,and/or one or more impression data aggregation module(s) 874. Any of themodules may include one or more sub-modules. While illustrated as partof the ad exchange server 820, the depicted modules and relatedfunctionality may be distributed across various computer systems. Thewebsite publisher server 810 or the ad server 830 may also include someof the components illustrated as part of the ad exchange server 820. Anyof the modules depicted in FIG. 8 may include computer-executable code,instructions, or the like that may be loaded into the memory 864 forexecution by one or more of the processor(s) 856.

The ad exchange server(s) 820 may be configured to access, store, and/orretrieve data in or from one or more datastore(s). For example, invarious embodiments, the ad exchange server 820 may be in communicationwith one or more historical data datastore(s) 876 that may haveinformation related to previously processed ad impressions and relatedauctions.

The ad exchange server(s) 820 may also include communicationsconnection(s) that allow the ad exchange server(s) 820 to communicatewith datastores, other computing devices or servers, user terminals,and/or other devices via the network(s) 844. For example, the adexchange server(s) 820 may utilize the radio/antenna 862 to communicatewith the ad server 830, the website publisher server 810, and/or theuser device(s) 840.

Referring now to the functionality of the modules illustrated in FIG. 8,the ad exchange server 820 may include the ad impression module(s) 866,the bid request generation module(s) 868, the floor price determinationmodule(s) 870, the reserve tracking module(s) 872, and/or the impressiondata aggregation module(s) 874.

The ad impression module(s) 866 may include computer-executableinstructions that upon execution by the processor(s) 856 configures theprocessor(s) 856 to receive ad impression requests and to determine adslot information associated with the ad impression request.

The bid request generation module(s) 868 may include computer-executableinstructions, code, or the like, that, responsive to execution by theprocessor(s) 856, may cause the ad exchange server(s) 820 to generateand send bid requests for available ad slots. The bid request generationmodule(s) 868 may be further configured to identify blacklisted and/orapproved bidders and to receive and evaluate received bids.

The floor price determination module(s) 870 may includecomputer-executable instructions, code, or the like, that, responsive toexecution by the processor(s) 856, may cause the ad exchange server(s)820 to determine whether to modify a floor price and if so, how tomodify the floor price. The floor price determination module(s) 870 maybe further configured to calculate predicted winning bid amounts.

The reserve tracking module(s) 872 may include computer-executableinstructions, code, or the like, that, responsive to execution by theprocessor(s) 856, may cause the ad exchange server(s) 820 to track atotal reserve amount for a particular publisher, website, or otherentity over time.

The impression data aggregation module(s) 874 may includecomputer-executable instructions, code, or the like, that, responsive toexecution by the processor(s) 856, may cause the ad exchange server(s)820 to access and/or determine additional information to enhance dataassociated with an ad impression request or related bid request.

The processor(s) 846, 856 of each component in the system 840 may beimplemented as appropriate in hardware, software, firmware, orcombinations thereof. Software or firmware implementations of theprocessor(s) 846, 856 may include computer-executable ormachine-executable instructions written in any suitable programminglanguage to perform the various functions described. Similarly, hardwareimplementations of the processor(s) 846, 856 may be configured toexecute computer-executable or machine-executable instructions toperform the various functions described.

The processor(s) 846, 856 of each component in the system 840 may beconfigured to access the respective memory and executecomputer-executable instructions loaded therein. For example, theprocessor(s) 846, 856 of each component in the system 840 may beconfigured to execute computer-executable instructions of the variousprogram modules to cause or facilitate various operations to beperformed in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.The processor(s) 846, 856 may include any suitable processing unitcapable of accepting data as input, processing the input data inaccordance with stored computer-executable instructions, and generatingoutput data. The processor(s) 846, 856 may include any type of suitableprocessing unit including, but not limited to, a central processingunit, a microprocessor, a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)microprocessor, a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)microprocessor, a microcontroller, an Application Specific IntegratedCircuit (ASIC), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), aSystem-on-a-Chip (SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), and so forth.Further, the processor(s) 846, 856 may have any suitablemicroarchitecture design that includes any number of constituentcomponents such as, for example, registers, multiplexers, arithmeticlogic units, cache controllers for controlling read/write operations tocache memory, branch predictors, or the like. The microarchitecturedesign of the processor(s) 846, 856 may be capable of supporting any ofa variety of instruction sets.

The respective network interface(s) 858 of devices in the system 820 maybe configured to allow the respective devices to communicate withcontent providers and other entities over networks (e.g., network(s)844), such as local-area networks (LANs), wide-area networks (WANs), theInternet, wireless networks, wireless wide-area networks (WWANs), cabletelevision networks, telephone networks, cellular communicationsnetworks, combinations of the foregoing, and/or the like. Further, suchnetworks may have any suitable communication range associated therewithand may include, for example, metropolitan area networks (MANs) orpersonal area networks (PANs). In addition, such networks may includecommunication links and associated networking devices (e.g., link-layerswitches, routers, etc.) for transmitting network traffic over anysuitable type of medium including, but not limited to, coaxial cable,twisted-pair wire (e.g., twisted-pair copper wire), optical fiber, ahybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) medium, a microwave medium, a radio frequencycommunication medium, a satellite communication medium, or anycombination thereof

The respective input/output (I/O) interface(s) 860 of components of thesystem 820 may facilitate the receipt of input information by therespective devices from one or more I/O devices as well as the output ofinformation from the respective devices to the one or more I/O devices.The I/O devices may include, for example, one or more user interfacedevices that facilitate interaction between a user and the respectivedevices including, but not limited to, a display, a keypad, a pointingdevice, a control panel, a touch screen display, a remote controldevice, a microphone, a speaker, and so forth. The I/O devices mayfurther include, for example, any number of peripheral devices such asdata storage devices, printing devices, and so forth.

The radio/antenna(s) 862 may include any suitable type of antenna(s)depending, for example, on the communications protocols used to transmitor receive signals via the radio/antenna(s) 862. Non-limiting examplesof suitable antennas may include directional antennas, non-directionalantennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas,multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, or the like. Theradio/antenna(s) 862 may be communicatively coupled to one or moretransceiver components to which or from which signals may be transmittedor received. The radio/antenna(s) 862 may include, without limitation, acellular antenna for transmitting or receiving signals to/from acellular network infrastructure, such as Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), 3G standards (e.g., Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access(W-CDMA), CDMA2000, etc.), 4G standards (e.g., Long-Term Evolution(LTE), WiMax, etc.), 5G standards, direct satellite communications, orthe like. Other example antennas can include a Global NavigationSatellite System (GNSS) antenna for receiving GNSS signals from a GNSSsatellite, a Bluetooth antenna for transmitting or receiving Bluetoothsignals, a Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna for transmitting orreceiving NFC signals, and so forth.

The radio/antenna(s) 862 may additionally, or alternatively, include aWi-Fi antenna configured to transmit or receive signals in accordancewith established standards and protocols, such as the IEEE 802.11 familyof standards, including via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11b, 802.11g,802.11n), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11ac), or 60 GHZ channels(e.g. 802.11ad). In alternative example embodiments, theradio/antenna(s) 862 may be configured to transmit or receive radiofrequency signals within any suitable frequency range forming part ofthe unlicensed portion of the radio spectrum.

Each respective memory 848, 864 may store program instructions that areloadable and executable on processor(s), as well as data generatedduring the execution of these programs. The respective memory 848, 864of the devices of the system may include volatile memory (memory thatmaintains its state when supplied with power) such as random accessmemory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory (memory that maintains its stateeven when not supplied with power) such as read-only memory (ROM), flashmemory, ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), and so forth. In certain exampleembodiments, volatile memory may enable faster read/write access thannon-volatile memory. However, in certain other example embodiments,certain types of non-volatile memory (e.g., FRAM) may enable fasterread/write access than certain types of volatile memory. The memory 848,864 may include removable and/or non-removable media which may beimplemented in any method or technology for storage of information, suchas computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data. The components of the system 840 may also include additionalremovable storage and/or non-removable storage (not shown) including,but not limited to, magnetic storage, optical disks, and/or tapestorage. The disk drives and their associated computer-readable mediamay provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, and other data. In some implementations,the memory 848, 864 may include multiple different types of memory, suchas static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory(DRAM), and/or ROM. Computer-readable storage media may include volatileand/or non-volatile, removable and/or non-removable media implementedaccording to any method or technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and/orother data.

Additional types of computer storage media that may be present in theuser device 840 and/or the ad exchange server 820 may include, but arenot limited to, programmable random access memory (PRAM), SRAM, DRAM,RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM),flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to storethe desired information and which can be accessed by the aforementioneddevices. Combinations of any of the above are be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

Although specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described, oneof ordinary skill in the art will recognize that numerous othermodifications and alternative embodiments are within the scope of thedisclosure. For example, any of the functionality and/or processingcapabilities described with respect to a particular device or componentmay be performed by any other device or component. Further, althoughspecific examples of bid amounts, bid data, ad metrics, deliveryconstraints, optimization criteria, and/or quality parameters have beenpresented, it should be appreciated that numerous other examples arewithin the scope of this disclosure.

It should further be appreciated that components of the systemsdescribed herein may include alternate and/or additional hardware,software, or firmware components beyond those described or depictedwithout departing from the scope of the disclosure. More particularly,it should be appreciated that software, firmware, or hardware componentsdepicted as forming part of the depicted systems are merely illustrativeand that some components may not be present or additional components maybe provided in various embodiments. While various illustrative programmodules have been depicted and described as software or data storedlocally, it should be appreciated that functionality described as beingsupported by the program modules may be enabled by any combination ofhardware, software, and/or firmware and may be stored remotely. Itshould further be appreciated that each of the above-mentioned modulesmay, in various embodiments, represent a logical partitioning ofsupported functionality. This logical partitioning is depicted for easeof explanation of the functionality and may not be representative of thestructure of software, hardware, and/or firmware for implementing thefunctionality. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that functionalitydescribed as being provided by a particular module may, in variousembodiments, be provided at least in part by one or more other modules.Further, one or more depicted modules may not be present in certainembodiments, while in other embodiments, additional modules not depictedmay be present and may support at least a portion of the describedfunctionality and/or additional functionality. Moreover, while certainmodules may be depicted and described as sub-modules of another module,in certain embodiments, such modules may be provided as independentmodules or as sub-modules of other modules.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference toblock and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/orcomputer program products according to example embodiments. It will beunderstood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flowdiagrams, respectively, may be implemented by execution ofcomputer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of theblock diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to beperformed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to beperformed at all, according to some embodiments. Further, additionalcomponents and/or operations beyond those depicted in blocks of theblock and/or flow diagrams may be present in certain embodiments.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specifiedfunctions, and program instruction means for performing the specifiedfunctions. It will also be understood that each block of the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose,hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions,elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

Program modules, applications, or the like disclosed herein may includeone or more software components including, for example, softwareobjects, methods, data structures, or the like. Each such softwarecomponent may include computer-executable instructions that, responsiveto execution, cause at least a portion of the functionality describedherein (e.g., one or more operations of the illustrative methodsdescribed herein) to be performed.

A software component may be coded in any of a variety of programminglanguages. An illustrative programming language may be a lower-levelprogramming language such as an assembly language associated with aparticular hardware architecture and/or operating system platform. Asoftware component comprising assembly language instructions may requireconversion into executable machine code by an assembler prior toexecution by the hardware architecture and/or platform.

Another example programming language may be a higher-level programminglanguage that may be portable across multiple architectures. A softwarecomponent comprising higher-level programming language instructions mayrequire conversion to an intermediate representation by an interpreteror a compiler prior to execution.

Other examples of programming languages include, but are not limited to,a macro language, a shell or command language, a job control language, ascript language, a database query or search language, or a reportwriting language. In one or more example embodiments, a softwarecomponent comprising instructions in one of the foregoing examples ofprogramming languages may be executed directly by an operating system orother software component without having to be first transformed intoanother form.

A software component may be stored as a file or other data storageconstruct. Software components of a similar type or functionally relatedmay be stored together such as, for example, in a particular directory,folder, or library. Software components may be static (e.g.,pre-established or fixed) or dynamic (e.g., created or modified at thetime of execution).

Software components may invoke or be invoked by other softwarecomponents through any of a wide variety of mechanisms. Invoked orinvoking software components may comprise other custom-developedapplication software, operating system functionality (e.g., devicedrivers, data storage (e.g., file management) routines, other commonroutines and services, etc.), or third-party software components (e.g.,middleware, encryption, or other security software, database managementsoftware, file transfer or other network communication software,mathematical or statistical software, image processing software, andformat translation software).

Software components associated with a particular solution or system mayreside and be executed on a single platform or may be distributed acrossmultiple platforms. The multiple platforms may be associated with morethan one hardware vendor, underlying chip technology, or operatingsystem. Furthermore, software components associated with a particularsolution or system may be initially written in one or more programminglanguages, but may invoke software components written in anotherprogramming language.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a servercomprising one or more computer processors, a first ad impressionrequest for an ad slot on a publisher website or mobile application froman ad exchange server, the first ad impression request comprising areferral website URL for the publisher website or mobile application;extracting first publisher website or mobile application informationfrom the publisher website or mobile application, the first publisherwebsite or mobile application information comprising a user identifier;associating the first publisher website or mobile applicationinformation with the first ad impression request; comparing the referralwebsite URL to a set of one or more historical ad impression requests;determining a second ad impression request from the set of one or morehistorical ad impression requests that comprises at least a portion ofthe referral website URL; identifying second publisher website or mobileapplication information associated with the second ad impressionrequest, the second publisher website or mobile application informationcomprising ad slot dimension information; associating the secondpublisher website or mobile application information with the first adimpression request; generating a bid request associated with the firstad impression request, the bid request comprising at least the portionof the referral website URL, the user identifier, and the ad slotdimension information; and sending the bid request to one or more adservers.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by theserver, a bid from an ad server in response to the bid request, the bidcomprising a bid amount for the ad slot; determining that the bid is awinning bid; sending a winning notification to the ad server; receivingad impression information comprising a digital advertisement; andsending the ad impression information for presentation of the digitaladvertisement in the ad slot at the publisher website or mobileapplication.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, bythe server, an information request comprising at least the portion ofthe referral website URL to a third party server, the informationrequest indicative of a request for a publisher identifier associatedwith the referral website URL; receiving the publisher identifier; andassociating the publisher identifier with the first ad impressionrequest, wherein the bid request further comprises the publisheridentifier.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information requestfurther comprises a request for mobile application information, and themethod further comprises: receiving the mobile application informationcomprising a mobile application name, a mobile application version, aset of one or more mobile application features, a mobile applicationuser rating, a mobile device operating system, or a browser identifier;and associating the mobile application information with the first adimpression request.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstpublisher website or mobile application information and the secondpublisher website or mobile application information further comprise apublisher identifier, website or mobile application context information,user information, mobile device information, or mobile applicationinformation.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing thefirst ad impression request in the set of one or more historical adimpression requests.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting firstpublisher website or mobile application information from the publisherwebsite or mobile application comprises receiving the first publisherwebsite or mobile application information from a JavaScript engineexecuted on a browser operating on a user device of a user to which anad impression is to be presented.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising determining that the first ad impression request is missingthe user identifier or the ad slot dimension information.
 9. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: extracting, by the server, the referralwebsite URL from the ad impression request to generate extractedinformation; sending the extracted information to a remote servercomprising cached historical ad impression requests; and receiving theset of one or more historical ad impression requests.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining, by the server and based atleast in part on metadata associated with the publisher website ormobile application, a webpage sentiment category; and associating thewebpage sentiment category with the first ad impression request.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the server andbased at least in part on the first ad impression request, a locationidentifier indicative of a location at the publisher website or mobileapplication at which the ad slot is positioned; and associating thelocation identifier with the first ad impression request.
 12. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: identifying consumer informationcomprising cookies, the consumer information indicative of a consumer towhich the ad slot is to be presented; and associating the consumerinformation with the first ad impression request.
 13. A methodcomprising: receiving, by a server comprising one or more computerprocessors, a first ad impression request for an ad slot on a publisherwebsite or mobile application from an ad exchange server, the first adimpression request comprising at least a portion of a referral websiteURL for the publisher website or mobile application; extracting firstpublisher website or mobile application information from the publisherwebsite or mobile application, the first publisher website or mobileapplication information comprising website or mobile application contextinformation; associating the first publisher website or mobileapplication information with the first ad impression request; sending aninformation request comprising at least the portion of the referralwebsite URL to a third party server, the information request indicativeof a request for a publisher identifier associated with the referralwebsite URL; receiving the publisher identifier; associating thepublisher identifier with the first ad impression request; generating abid request associated with the first ad impression request, the bidrequest comprising at least the portion of the referral website URL, thewebsite context information, and the publisher identifier; and sendingthe bid request to one or more ad servers.
 14. The method of claim 13,further comprising: comparing at least the portion of the referralwebsite URL to a set of one or more historical ad impression requests;determining a second ad impression request from the set of one or morehistorical ad impression requests that comprises at least the portion ofthe referral website URL; identifying second publisher website or mobileapplication information associated with the second ad impressionrequest, the second publisher website or mobile application informationcomprising ad slot dimension information; and associating the secondpublisher website or mobile application information with the first adimpression request, wherein the bid request further comprises the adslot dimension information.
 15. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising: receiving, by the server, a bid from an ad server inresponse to the bid request, the bid comprising a bid amount for the adslot; determining that the bid is a winning bid; sending a winningnotification to the ad server; receiving ad impression informationcomprising a digital advertisement; and sending the ad impressioninformation for presentation of the digital advertisement in the ad slotat the publisher website or mobile application.
 16. The method of claim13, further comprising determining that the first ad impression requestis missing the website context information or the publisher identifier.17. The method of claim 13, wherein extracting first publisher websiteor mobile application information from the publisher website or mobileapplication comprises receiving the first publisher website or mobileapplication information from a JavaScript engine executed on a browseroperating on a user device of a user to which an ad impression is to bepresented.
 18. A computer system comprising: at least one memory thatstores computer-executable instructions; at least one processorconfigured to access the at least one memory and execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive a first ad impressionrequest for an ad slot on a publisher website or mobile application froman ad exchange server, the first ad impression request comprising atleast a portion of a referral website URL for the publisher website ormobile application; extract first publisher website or mobileapplication information from the publisher website or mobileapplication, the first publisher website or mobile applicationinformation comprising a user identifier; associate the first publisherwebsite or mobile application information with the first ad impressionrequest; compare the referral website URL to a set of one or morehistorical ad impression requests; determine a second ad impressionrequest from the set of one or more historical ad impression requeststhat comprises at least the portion of the referral website URL;identify second publisher website or mobile application informationassociated with the second ad impression request, the second publisherwebsite or mobile application information comprising ad slot dimensioninformation; associate the second publisher website or mobileapplication information with the first ad impression request; generate abid request associated with the first ad impression request, the bidrequest comprising at least the portion of the referral website URL, theuser identifier, and the ad slot dimension information; and send the bidrequest to one or more ad servers.
 19. The computer system of claim 18,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive a bid from an ad server inresponse to the bid request, the bid comprising a bid amount for the adslot; determine that the bid is a winning bid; send a winningnotification to the ad server; receive ad impression informationcomprising a digital advertisement; and send the ad impressioninformation for presentation of the digital advertisement in the ad slotat the publisher website or mobile application.
 20. The computer systemof claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is further configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to: send an informationrequest comprising at least the portion of the referral website URL to athird party server, the information request indicative of a request fora publisher identifier associated with the referral website URL; receivethe publisher identifier; and associate the publisher identifier withthe first ad impression request, wherein the bid request furthercomprises the publisher identifier.
 21. The computer system of claim 18,wherein the first publisher website or mobile application informationand the second publisher website or mobile application informationfurther comprising a publisher identifier, website context information,user information, mobile device information, or mobile applicationinformation.
 22. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the at leastone processor is configured to extract first publisher website or mobileapplication information from the publisher website or mobile applicationby executing the computer-executable instructions to: receive the firstpublisher website or mobile application information from a JavaScriptengine executed on a browser operate on a user device of a user to whichan ad impression is to be presented.
 23. The computer system of claim18, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to executethe computer-executable instructions to: determine that the first adimpression request is missing the user identifier or the ad slotdimension information.